by Renay Elle Morris

VALERA AND NATASHA CHERKASHIN’S PHOTOGRAPHIC STRENGTHS DEFINE AN ERA.

As of this writing, I am pleased to present an on-going series, a Q&A dialogue with an outstanding selection of photographers whose work spans many genres and are established in the global sphere. Their powerfully strong and explosive imagery has captured the eyes of museum and gallery curators worldwide, as well as secured homes with private collectors. Stimulating artistic and thought provoking photographic imagery characterize these artists who have explored and broken boundaries within the photographic medium.

For this first interview, I would like to thank Natasha and Valera Cherkashin for the opportunity to share their story with my readers. I caught up with the husband and wife team at Columbia University’s Harriman Institute where a lecture/presentation of “End of an Epoch” formalized the evening. While the couple resides and works in both New York and Moscow, they have been exploring not only the cultures of the former Soviet Republic, Russia, and the United States, but Great Britain, Germany, Spain, France, Japan, China and other countries since 1988. The Cherkashin’s have held more than 140 solo exhibits and more than100 “performance and art happenings”. To date, their work has been the subject of over 60 television programs; including CNN, Deutsche Welle, Italian Super Channel, and Russian TV, and have been featured in over 250 publications, includingArt+Auction, Art Forum, Washington Post, and Stern magazine.

“…Valera and Natasha work like sculptors: on an armature of historical structure, they drape layers of contemporary references. In a phrase: their images reveal the transparency of time…”

–Stephen Mansbach, Professor of the History of Twentieth-Century Art,
University of Maryland, College Park

BEGINNINGS

Renay: Take me back to the ‘70s – the cold war era of the Soviet Union. Explain the climate of culture and what was your objective in the your delivery of photographic expression.

Valera: The ‘70s was the time of Brezhnev and stagnation. From the early ‘70s to about 1985, life was very stable, peaceful and there was no innovation. By the middle of the ‘70s “unofficial soviet art” appeared – until then the state regulated the arts and what could be exhibited (allowed). I remember a group of artists with an unofficial exhibition in a barren field in Moscow. It was work influenced by western culture and a lot of foreign journalists were invited. Considered a great scandal and denounced by the government, bulldozers were sent to destroy the work. This was the beginning for us as artists. The journalists wrote strong articles, which put pressure on the government, and in turn there were even more unofficial exhibitions occurring after that. Moscow and St. Petersburg became centers for it, but it’s influence impacted creatives all over the country. It is important to note that photography at that time was not considered to be art.

REM: Creatively when did you become a team?

NC: I thought we started to collaborate after several years of our marriage, but now, looking back, we understand that our collaboration started from the very beginning of our relationship. We discussed Valera’s new works and our discussions influenced his creativity from the selection of negatives to the photo prints we made in bathroom, as it doubled as a darkroom for photographers. Later on we worked together to produce collages.

VC: My interest in photography really took shape in 1960 when I received my first camera at the age of 12. My relatives had cameras for personal and family photos, and I wasn’t allowed to toy and experiment with them. So intrigued by the camera’s possibilities, I saved my money until I was able to purchase a “SMENA 6” which was a small and inexpensive 35mm one with a self-timer. I started with a series of self-portraits and continued this trajectory. I moved to Moscow, which I believed was the center of contemporary art in 1980, after a brief study in St. Petersburg to learn the traditions of the Russian avant-garde.

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